When I consider Stephen Hawkin(s?) speaking ex cathedra on astrophysics and
the like, I wonder whether such a way of speaking is only appropriate for
fields such as his own. Hawkins seems to ramble on and on about black
holes and all things out there in the cosmos ad infinitum. The New
Testament has long been a closed canon (in some ways the Greek has been a
closed canon for longer, in other ways shorter), on which one could only
expound in a way that has either occurred before, or in giving a new theory
to an old text.

Much of the conversation on this mailing list appears to be in the form of
question and answer. Great for an ignoramus like myself! But very
different to the aforementioned ramblings of the seated genius who has very
few peers his equal that could keep him in check, and his finger
continually on the agenda, just as it is on his joystick.